Whitetail Creek Farm: Starting from scratch

[KS_Chicken_Wrangler]

Hey guys.

I thought I needed to start a thread for recording my flock and farm growth and development posts. I'll use this as a bit of a journal of sorts and provide updates on the growth of things around Whitetail Creek Farm.

March 1 was a tough day. Lost my first bird. I'm guessing it was to a hawk, but it happened mere minutes before I arrived because she was still inside the electric netting, in their forage area. The rest of the flock stayed inside the coop for several hours afterward. I confined them to the run for the rest of the day, trying to be watchful if that hawk should return.

Chicks will arrive on Wednesday, and I'm really excited about that. I have a number of people in the community who want a source of eggs and I'd like to fill that need. I'm getting 40 birds; mixed breeds for a colorful dozen eggs. Here's hoping I can build a customer base in the next 6 months!

 

[U_Stormcrow]

FOLLOWING!
Fortune favor your journey

 

[TwoCrows]

So sorry for your loss, always tough on the heart. Enjoy your new chicks!!

 

[KS_Chicken_Wrangler]

Tomorrow's the day. Will be adding another 40 birds to circus. Added some final touches to the brooder today. Will fire up the heat lamps in the morning and await the phone call!

Pretty excited about this. Spent a lot of time researching how to diversify my flock both in appearance and egg color. Also have a good deal of interest in eggs when these start laying in the fall. Hope that can take off for me.

 

[KS_Chicken_Wrangler]

Before we get too far down the road, I suppose a bit of a backstory is probably in order.

I live in South Central Kansas, near Wichita. And my farming takes place at my dad's place; 40 acres of mostly wooded creek bottom just a mile south of me. I will eventually expand to my in-laws land; 20 acres of remnant prairie and creek bottom. Trouble is, they live 10 minutes north, so that provides some logistical issues...but those are for another time.

My "farm" is truly a start-from-scratch venture. I've long been of the opinion that I would love to farm, as I grew up with a grandpa and uncle who raised hogs, a handful of cattle, and at some points-in-time chickens and turkeys. Mostly, I knew them as hog and commodity farmers. My uncle still farms and I've had many an opportunity to help out with many aspects of that farming.

My foray into the farm life started last May with me telling my wife, "Let's go to TSC. I'm getting some chickens." We started with 8 (now down one to a hawk), and my life as a chicken farmer began. I will add these new 40 birds, whenever the chicks show up today, and begin building a bigger and better chicken farming system with them. I will also add some broilers to the mix when I get the new batch of layers out of the brooder.

Eventually I would like to be able to grow into a solid local egg producer and be able to market some farm fresh, pastured poultry in the form of broiler sales as well. I'd like to expand my farm to include Idaho Pasture Pigs and some Dexter cattle (all breeds that are very efficient on grass) to control a bit of my own food supply and maybe have enough extra to sell some off and help offset costs. I've even considered raising some turkeys every year for those who might like to purchase a holiday bird. That is down the road because I think establishing a customer base via eggs and meat birds is likely step one.

Whitetail Creek Farm is the name I want to use when I get around to filing my LLC. The farm is on Emma Creek, my uncle owns Silver Creek Farm, so I thought a natural name included the creek. As luck would have it, this creek bottom is LOADED with deer, so Whitetail Creek it is!

Now...where are those chicks...?

 

[KS_Chicken_Wrangler]

The babies are here! Had one come in with only one eye and cross-beak, so Atwoods let me swap her out for another they had in stock (same age).

They weren't marked but I have at least two of each of the following breeds in here: Production Black, Rhode Island Red, Gold Laced Wyandotte, Silver Laced Wyandotte, Easter Egger, Olive Egger, Arctic Blue Egger, Welsummer, Welbar, Barnevelder, Speckled Sussex, Lavender Orpington, Black Copper Maran, Blue Copper Maran. Along with those I have one solitary Delaware (the one I swapped from Atwoods).

They are loving the room to run and the nice 100 degree Ohio brooder!

 

[TwoCrows]

We need photos!!

 

[KS_Chicken_Wrangler]

We need photos!!

I have some "doctoring" to do today; some have a bit of pasty butt, but nothing bad. As I go through that I'll try to send some photos of smaller groups.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I have some "doctoring" to do today; some have a bit of pasty butt, but nothing bad. As I go through that I'll try to send some photos of smaller groups.

Not uncommon in shipped birds. Should ease up over the next couple days. Sounds like you have a handle on things and know how to address it.

FWIW, I've found feeding a wet mash, oatmeal-like consistency **seems** to help speed the process of getting past the pasty butt, period, though that's anecdote, not hard data. I don't purchase shipped chicks anymore, hatch my own, its (almost entirely) stopped being a problem for me.

 

[KS_Chicken_Wrangler]

Not uncommon in shipped birds. Should ease up over the next couple days. Sounds like you have a handle on things and know how to address it.

FWIW, I've found feeding a wet mash, oatmeal-like consistency **seems** to help speed the process of getting past the pasty butt, period, though that's anecdote, not hard data. I don't purchase shipped chicks anymore, hatch my own, its (almost entirely) stopped being a problem for me.

Good to know. I've been following a number of people who are using the wet mash/fermented feed with their flocks. Some swear by it, others have said the savings on cost are negligible and thus they don't find it to be worth the effort. I would love to get to the point of hatching my own. Not quite sure I'm ready for it yet. My daughter (in nursing school, so she loved it) and I fished out all the pasty butts and got them cleaned up. We did lose one chick, but out of 40 I suppose that is to be expected.

I do plan to order some ducklings yet this season (probably into summer), is pasty butt a thing with them too?